This reminds me of when I was in the Navy -- at one point I had lived with hundreds of other guys in a ship's berthing and at another duty station I mentioned to a coworker that I could determine someone's race from their sweat. Of course, they called bullshit on that statement (as I'd imagine most on here would) and we tested it out with 4 guys (1 black[1], 2 white[2], 1 hispanic[3]) who sweated into the same size shirts, and I was able to identify them with 100% accuracy. Another time, I walked into a cubicle, wrinkled my nose, and said "Man! It smells like an old deck of cards in here!". One of the guys standing next to me then pulled out a rather well-played-through deck of cards out of his pocket.
One of the reasons people give for the difference in smell are the difference in foods that different cultures eat. I definitely know this is not the case, as everyone on that ship was eating the exact same food, and their smells were extremely distinct.
I understand that lack of science applied to my specific anecdotes, but I think there's something to be said for having a keen sense of smell, since people are already geared towards smelling other people's sweat to determine immunocompatibility[4].
[1] A black person's sweat is the one I can identify with absolute certainty, as it's completely unmistakable for anything else
[2] A white person's sweat smells like a distinct type of onion to me
[3] I couldn't really identify his race if it were just this shirt, but had that one by process of elimination.
" A white person's sweat smells like a distinct type of onion to me..."
I can relate. I'm black and african and its a common thing here to describe caucasians as smelling of onions.
One of the reasons people give for the difference in smell are the difference in foods that different cultures eat. I definitely know this is not the case, as everyone on that ship was eating the exact same food, and their smells were extremely distinct.
I understand that lack of science applied to my specific anecdotes, but I think there's something to be said for having a keen sense of smell, since people are already geared towards smelling other people's sweat to determine immunocompatibility[4].
[1] A black person's sweat is the one I can identify with absolute certainty, as it's completely unmistakable for anything else
[2] A white person's sweat smells like a distinct type of onion to me
[3] I couldn't really identify his race if it were just this shirt, but had that one by process of elimination.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_histocompatibility_compl...